• Tropics – Rapture

    January 30, 2015 - By 

    The second full-length release from vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Ward, better known as Tropics, Rapture builds on 2011’s lushly produced Parodia Flare to create something equally atmospheric, if rather more reserved than its title might suggest. Opening track and lead single ‘Blame’ establishes the album’s intriguing combination of reticence and expansiveness, as Rhodes pianos, gently bubbling analogue synths and flickering snatches of noise provide the bed for Ward’s gentle vocal, while loose but forceful percussion brings momentum. Looseness is a watchword across the album, which is propelled by richly textured percussive arrangements that ebb and swell as organically as the melodic components.…

  • Hot Cops – #1 Babes

    February 2, 2015 - By 

    Arguably one of the most exciting and idiosyncratic Irish indie-rock bands of a generation, Belfast-based three-piece Hot Cops are teetering on the brink of some great things in 2015. Released immediately off the back of their stellar double-single ‘Origami/Novelty’, the band’s new four-track EP, #1 Babes, coyly, often cryptically renders instability, heartbreak, and the human condition in first-rate, wanderlust-tinged lo-fi glory. Positively bursting at the seams with fuzzed-out tangents, earworming refrains and masterfully nonchalant hooks, the Carl Eccles-fronted threesome’s cunningly off-kilter, slacker-soaked anti-anthems instantly evoke their main influences in Pavement, Deerhunter and Cloud Nothings. At the root of that is…

  • R51 – Pillow Talk EP

    January 29, 2015 - By 

    Belfast’s R51 latest EP, Pillow Talk, has got powerful weapons hidden in it’s arsenal. The release is awash with lush guitars, brutal riffs and a genuine excitement. The influence of the Smashing Pumpkins, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine is evident throughout. However, rather than parroting what those bands have done, the band seem intent on mixing these sources with their own voice to create something refreshing. Centrally though, the band seem intent on straddling that fine line between artistic and accessible and while they may not always be successful in that goal, they still knock it out of the park…

  • Jape – This Chemical Sea

    January 29, 2015 - By 

    How do you follow up not one, but two Choice Music Prize winning albums? This is a dilemma that so far no one has ever had to face other than Jape’s Richie Egan. He’s Ireland’s answer to PJ Harvey in that respect, although even she didn’t win her two Mercury Prizes with two consecutive albums.  First properly establishing himself with 2008’s Ritual, still a bona fide Irish classic and arguably Egan’s first solidly consistent piece of work, having benefitted from the success of minor hit single ‘Floating’ to show him which direction to settle on, 2011’s Ocean Of Frequency was…

  • Ty Segall – Mr. Face EP

    January 28, 2015 - By 

    We’re not really certain that Ty Segall sleeps. His near-constant stream of output, be it through his seven solo albums or countless collaborations on other records, all within a relatively short span of seven years, make us wonder when he would have the time. His latest effort comes straight off the back of last year’s glam-powered double album, Manipulator in the form of a four track EP entitled Mr. Face. Mr. Face is currently being promoted as being ‘The World’s First Playable Pair Of 3D Glasses’ but they use the term ‘glasses’ generously. If you were to hold the two red and blue 7”…

  • The Midnight Union Band – Of Life And Lesser Evils

    January 23, 2015 - By 

    The formation of The Midnight Union Band sounds like one of those great rock and roll stories. Peter Flynn (piano/organ/electric guitar/lapslide/mandolin), Brian McGrath (bass) and Cian Doolan (electric guitar/mandolin) had all played in a band together, but they were struggling with creating a grander sound. One day they literally stumbled upon busker Shane Joyce on the streets of Kilkenny and invited him to join the band, and with the addition of drummer John Wallace, it seems the The Midnight Union Band was truly born. After the release of five song EP Behind The Truth in 2013 and a year of…

  • Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love

    January 23, 2015 - By 

    If, after ten years and numerous highly influential albums, you want to call it a day, that’s perfectly fine. That old Neil Young line about burning out holds as much weight now as it did in back in 1979. But if you are going to reappear without warning, you’d better have a damn good reason. You can talk about legacy ultimately being redundant, but how many great bands are tarnished by a bad comeback album. The Pixies’ Indie Cindy is a record chock full of cuts that wouldn’t be considered C-sides back in their heyday, the world wasn’t begging for…

  • Belle and Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

    January 21, 2015 - By 

    Nineteen years and nine albums later, Belle and Sebastian still prove to be a true testament of youth. Nearly two decades after the release of their debut album Tiger Milk, ninth studio album Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance finds a sound that carries the torch of their primordial folk roots while embracing the changing tastes of an alt-oriented audience. Distributed by Matador Records, the album marks the band’s first release with the US indie label and the first with Atlanta-based producer Ben H. Allen III. Given this tenuous moment in the Glasgow group’s prolific career, the change in direction reads a…

  • The Dodos – Individ

    January 20, 2015 - By 

    Some bands have one album in their discography that will simply never be bettered and will always slightly overshadow all subsequent releases. The Dodos are one of those bands. After debuting with the pretty solid Beware Of The Maniacs, the duo came to most people’s attention with second album Visiter, an hour long indie folk odyssey, characterised by Meric Long’s intricate yet sometimes ramshackle finger picking and honey-like voice accompanied by Logan Kroeber’s frantic percussion, performed as if by a man with at least 3 arms. Wonderfully melodic, occasionally chaotic, it was the overlooked gem of 2008. They followed it…

  • Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper

    January 13, 2015 - By 

    Noah Lennox knows how to stir up a bit of intrigue. On his fifth album as Panda Bear, the Animal Collective co-conspirator has chosen a title that seems prophetic. Are we seeing the retirement of the Panda Bear avatar as we know it or is this simply a vague conceptual slant that the record seems to take? Lennox has said that the sequence of songs deals with the death of certain “character traits that are unnecessary or detrimental”, the dissolution of an identity, broken down until it is completely eradicated. In parts it’s reminiscent of The Terror by Flaming Lips,…